Monday, April 16, 2012

94 years old Billionaire Marries young lady for Fifth Time

The billionaire with wife number five

If you had almost five billion dollars, what would you do? For Karl Wlaschek, the answer is marry a lot.

Forbes is reporting via Vienna News that Austrian retail tycoon Wlaschek will wed for the fifth time at the ripe old age of 94. His bride-to-be, girlfriend Friederike 'Ricki' Schenk, won't reveal her age, but is likely a good three decades behind her groom. That means Wlaschek, a self-made mogul, has defied stereotypes by proposing to a woman who's closer to his age

Still, the billionaire with the prolific marriage history is a plot-line we've seen over and over again. Revlon honcho Ron Perelman wed number five two years ago, shortly after the ink dried on his brutal divorce from actress Ellen Barkin. Larry Ellison and T. Boone Pickens are up to number four and the night is still young.

Five-timer Wlaschek earned his $4.7 billion dollar bank account by founding Billa, a European supermarket chain. He's since become one of the biggest real estate magnates in Austria. He announced his engagement at one of his own properties, a sprawling five star hotel in his native country, where he once played as a struggling young jazz pianist, back when the musical genre was in its infancy.

The groom met his future bride at a Vienna event a few years back, and soon realized somewhat touchingly or morbidly depending on your vantage point, that they'd both lost their last spouses on the very same day.

The couple's wedding is set to take place in a few days, according to Forbes (although some German gossip pages are saying the big day already happened this past Saturday).

The self-made Wlaschek already has four kids but still wants "another five or six children, at the very least." His bride laughed that comment off, saying "I am not so young any more."